February 5, 2017 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Signaling how this matter may well turn out, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals [in a two judge panel] has denied the government’s request for a stay in the Temporary Restraining Order issued on Friday by Seattle Federal Judge, James L. Robart which halted president Trump’s executive order instituting a ban on immigration from 7 Muslim majority [read terror linked] countries.

The two justices involved in the decision are William Canby Jr. and Michelle T. Friedland.

Canby - a Carter appointee - is an 85 year old fossil, serves part time on the court and is one of the circuit’s most activist justices. For example Canby was notably smacked down by SCOTUS in 1995 over his failure to give due deference to the 10th Amendment [see, Wiki, bio William C. Canby Jr.]

Judge Friedland - an Obama appointee and the youngest sitting appellate court judge in the nation is another lefty, clerked for Judge David Tatel of the DC Circuit.

Tatel is another leftist “present” from the ex-president’s power base in Chicago.

“He served as founding director of the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Director of the National Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Director of the Office for Civil Rights of the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare during the Carter Administration.” [see,Wiki, bio David S. Tatel]

A decision on the matter is expected perhaps early next week, but the legal machinations of Robart in WA and the two 9th Circuit lefties clearly favor the appellants.

Robart erred in not even being capable of articulating exactly how Washington State and Minnesota would have been harmed by the execution of the Trump immigration directive, and the Ninth Circuit in failing to grant a temporary stay in Robart’s decision is a clear sign what direction the most reversed court in the land appears to be taking.

The number of times that 9th Circuit decisions have been overruled by SCOTUS is the stuff of legend.

“The Supreme Court may be sending a message to one of the country's most liberal appeals courts, unanimously overturning five consecutive cases out of the 9th Circuit in less than a week. The fact that the rulings were unanimous can be seen as a signal from on high that the circuit needs to get in line. ‘That's an indication this court is way out of the mainstream," said Kent Scheidegger, legal director for the California-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation. "They're getting impatient with them. They just keep coming back with this stuff.’"

So it seems that at the process level, the deck is stacked against the president.

The filing was made intentionally in Washington State with the left knowing that an appeal would be ruled upon by the most leftist judicial district in the land, quite an accomplishment when noting that the federal court appellate system in general is perhaps the left’s most potent weapon…unelected, overwhelmingly liberal men in black with lifetime appointments and hence no avenue of recourse when justices go astray.

As if the right needs further reason to inject as many strict constructionist/constitutionalist justices as possible into the judiciary it’s helpful to remember that the leftist slant of the 9th was almost singlehandedly created during the Carter administration which expanded the court by taking the unprecedented action of adding 10 new and certainly more activist justices to the circuit, thus completely changing its complexion.

However, despite these considerable impediments, the law is clearly on the side of the president.

According to 8 U.S. Code § 1182 which deals specifically with “inadmissible aliens,” the president has plenary power in this area and can at his discretion establish the standards whereby non-citizens may be kept out of the United States based upon their threat posture.

“ Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate. Whenever the Attorney General finds that a commercial airline has failed to comply with regulations of the Attorney General relating to requirements of airlines for the detection of fraudulent documents used by passengers traveling to the United States (including the training of personnel in such detection), the Attorney General may suspend the entry of some or all aliens transported to the United States by such airlines.” [source, Cornell Law ].

So in more reasonable times the Trump executive order would have easily prevailed upon its first hearing, but under present circumstances, with the GOP having abdicated its responsibility to act as a counterweight to the increasingly scary looking Democrat party which has been funding violent street demonstrations intended to intimidate, it’s anyone’s guess where this thing is headed.